Upgrading An Old Juwel Tank. Opinions?

[Shifty1303]

Hi all! 
 
wasnt sure where exactly to post this topic so apologies if this is the wrong place!
 
I have an old unused juwel rekord 800 (110litre) gathering dust in my house after i upgraded to a fluval roma 200 last year but im starting to consider getting it running again and finally having a second tank! Problem is, its boring and uninspired to look at.. i was wondering if some people on here would have any good advice for me regarding the ways in which i want to upgrade it? 
 
I would like to replace the bland black hood with a suspended LED lighting system and fish guard; more like the fluval fresh range (also with tank rim exposed). However, the fluval aqualife LED lighting systems seem very expensive although they look rather good so does anyone have any thoughts here on a more economical alternative?
 
Also i am considering installing an external filter to replace the old standard juwel column internal filter. is installing a system like this difficult? i cant see any difficulty in it beyond drilling the inlet and outlet holes? again any advice?
 
Oh and if anyone was wondering i am looking to keep a pair of german rams and a load of tetras in it.
 
any and all opinions/advice welcome
 
Regards,
Shifty

 

[Akasha72]

I also have a Juwel Rekord 800 sitting in my shed un-used. I also want to bring it in and re-stock it but I lack the space now I have my Juwel Rio 240. To be completely honest with you .... my Rio has been converted for externals - it was bought second hand and the filter box had already been ripped out. I'm on a waiting list to move and plan to buy a brand new Rio 240 to make life easy. To make life even easier the one thing I won't be doing is ripping out the Juwel filter.
 
I'll explain why. The Rekord used to tick over with no problems what so ever. The filter was the best I'd come across and the fact that the heater was tucked away out of sight aswell was just a bonus. Now I'm not saying I don't like external filters but given the choice between my externals and the Juwel internal filter the Juwel would win every time. The design is simple and easy and with some clever planting the black corner box can just 'disappear'.
 
Now the lid of the Rekord. Here I do understand where you are going with this but I think the open top tank can be a dangerous thing. The problem with the Juwel is they are designed to be filled to a line and that line is pretty close to the top of the glass. I would worry about getting up one morning to the stock dead and dried up on the carpet - it happened to me when I left the 800 uncovered and I lost my favourite fish.
The issue I had with my Rekord lid was condensation used to get between the stick on background and the glass and it looked horrible. This was because of the lid sitting on the glass, there was no way around it. The lid also used to vibrate from the filter and it used to annoy me!
 
I think what you are planning needs some serious thought and research. Personally I would leave it as it is and make what's inside the tank the feature. With the fish you are planning you are going to get lots of colour and activity and with planting and decor it could look amazing and if the inside of the tank looks amazing you won't even notice the outside

 

[gmc1]

I have just recieved aqualantis led strip for my saltwater conversion.I was planning open top but it seems I am getting dog hair into tank.I was planning on using glass cut to size for cover.this was too expensive.just today I have cut some acrylic to size.I will be making appropriate gaps/holes for (drilling holes)circulation.this should work ok but the distance between led strips and acrylic will in time tell how the temp will affect it.the led strip is for my 90 litre and the light from it is very good.I will be starting a journal next week if you want to see what I done.

 

[Shifty1303]

Thanks for the opinions guys. Some interesting points and I suppose you are right about the juwel internal. My main reasoning for upgrading to a better external was just to provide a higher filter capacity to give the best water possible as I understand rams can be more sensitive than most, especially if I go with electric blue ones. I think I shall keep the internal though.

Fair point on escaping fish. The hood is just so ugly and I find the t5 tubes underwhelming hence why I wanted to upgrade to Led. I have seen some stick on strips. Are they good? I guess they are designed to supplement the tube lights though instead of replacing them?

One last question. What are peoples thoughts on black substrate? I normally just use play sand as I love my Cory cats but I gather black substrates can help enhance fish colour?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

One last question. What are peoples thoughts on black substrate? I normally just use play sand as I love my Cory cats but I gather black substrates can help enhance fish colour?

 
I love a black substrate.  I just (well, a few months ago) put a black 'sand' substrate in my tank.  This stuff is wonderful.  Its 'Estes Ceramaquartz'.  I went with 'S' grade.  Very fine.  Very clean... I didn't even have to rinse it much.  Just a bit to remove a bit of the dust.  The cories love it... digging in it as they do play sand, etc.  This stuff is not rough and doesn't cause their barbels any issues.  The hard part was finding it.  I emailed the company and they told me where the closest distributor was.  I drove over, picked it up (from a concrete wholesaler) and couldn't be happier.  <$25 for 50 lbs.  It was so cheap, I decided to buy a second bag just to have it around for topping off, new tank designs, etc.   Lovely stuff really.

 

[Akasha72]

I also love a black substrate too - teamed with a black background it makes plant and fish colours pop. I did have play sand but I found that the fish dived for cover when the tank lights came on and eventually I worked out it was all just too bright for them. Once I changed to the black (well, it's actually grey now) the fish stopped hiding when the lights came on and seemed far less stressed. 
 
I'm glad you've decided to keep the internal filter Shifty, I really don't think you'll regret it. Before upgrading I had a pair of bolivian rams and a pair of laetacara curviceps cichlids in my 800 and they were fine. Once they moved to a larger tank I had a pair of electric blue rams in it too and they actually died when I moved them out of the 800 to break it down!
As I said, the 800 just ticked over - once cycled I never had any water issues with it at all. I really do think that Juwel make their filters to the highest spec and they are totally up the job
 
The other issue I can see here is going to be the plan to remove the lid. The 800 is just a basic oblong tank. There is no cut outs at the back for wires or pipes like there is on larger Juwel tanks and so going down the route of maybe using acrylic as GMC suggested could cause a bit of head scratching. Your going to be looking at the cables no matter what you do - unless you cut notches out of the tank glass

  

 

[Shifty1303]

awesome advice again.. i shall have a look for a nice fine black sand so i can keep some corys too.
 
how did you find the electric blue rams? my LFS has some but im still not sure if id rather get them or the standard german blue ones as i figure they would be slightly hardier? im very up too speed on water consitions and doing changes etc but sometimes dont get the time to do them weekly and id hate to lose the fragile electric blue rams because i delayed maintenance a few days.
 
for now i think i will leave the lid then but im going to upgrade to one of those aqualantis LED strips as they sit in the existing t5 tube mounts and make up for both of the original tubes apparently.

 

[gmc1]

If you are def going to order light let me know so I can show you where to measure it for fitting into existing sockets.
Also the electric blues are great but I would only add them to soft water established tank.

 

[Akasha72]

I got my electric blues from my lfs. When I got them they were fully grown so when they died it could have been from age but that said - they did just suddenly go downhill. I had also heard they are delicate fish and so I wasn't shocked when they died. 
 
This was my male before I stupidly moved them
 

 
They were stunning fish

 

[gmc1]

I love mine.great character.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I believe, they also prefer warmer temps, and could be related to why some have difficulty with them.  They are best at 27-30 degrees C.  

 

[Shifty1303]

thanks gmc1, will get back to you if i go with it!
 
i really love the electric blues and could keep them at higher temps with the tetras and corys i guess if it helps them. i will of course only put them in an established tank.. i use liquid ammonia and an api master test kit to cycle my aquariums fully before introducing ANY livestock and i can certainly keep on top of regular water changes, my local tap water is moderately hard alkaline but i have found the use of driftwood in my 200l has softened and acidified the water very nicely bringing it to around a pH of 6.7 from 7.6
 
at the moment I am just weighing up the costs of upgrading the lighting (around £80-100) and stand etc (£80+) vs buying a new more aesthetically pleasing tank with LEDs etc already built in. any particular shining examples of those that you guys know of? i have been quite impressed recently by Aqua-one's new stuff
 
thanks again!

 

[Akasha72]

I'd do some research into which cories prefer higher temps as a lot of cories prefer it cool at around 24 degrees. I currently have a pair of angels who'd prefer it warmer at around 27-28 degrees but my cories prefer it cool at 24 so I'm currently shuffling along a fine line and trying to keep a happy medium of 25.5 - 26. It's not ideal really. When I got my angels I didn't know they like it warmer and so I thought I'd try prevent you making the same mistake
 
If you research the cories you like (and for this I'd recommend planet catfish as the info on there in brilliant) you should be able to find the species that'll be comfy in warmer temps

 

[Shifty1303]

true... i keep my current tank with panda corys in it at 24.5 as i knew they prefer slightly cooler. in that case are there any good alternative bottom dwellers that would like the higher temperatures the rams and tetras like?
 
also after visiting a few LFS's today i have noticed that i could just get a new 100~ l tank with stand and LED system for about the same price as upgrading the old juwel... decisions decisions...

 

[Akasha72]

I can't think of any bottom dwellers at the mo that like it warm ... research is the key here I think